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Archive Version of
Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples Online from 1995-2022 Demian and Steve Bryant originally founded Partners as a monthly newsletter in 1986. By late 1990 it was reformatted into a bi-monthly magazine. Print publication was halted by 1995 when Demian published Partners as a Web site, which greatly expanded readership. In 1988, the Partners National Survey of Lesbian & Gay Couples report was published; the first major U.S. survey on same-sex couples in a decade. In 1996, Demian produced The Right to Marry, a video documentary based on the dire need for equality that was made clear by the data from the survey mentioned above. The video featured interviews with Rev. Mel White, Evan Wolfson, Phyllis Burke, Richard Mohr, Kevin Cathcart, Faygele benMiriam, Benjamin Cable-McCarthy, Susan Reardon, Frances Fuchs, Tina Podlodowski, and Chelle Mileur. Demian has been the sole operator during the last two decades of Partners. Demian stopped work on Partners Task Force in order to realize his other time-consuming projects, which include publishing the book “Operating Manual for Same-Sex Couples: Navigating the rules, rites & rights” - which is now available on Amazon. The book is based on the Partners Survey mentioned above, his interviews of scores of couples, and 36 years of writing hundreds of articles about same-sex couples. It’s also been informed by his personal experience in a 20-year, same-sex relationship. Demian’s other project is to publish his “Photo Stories by Demian” books based on his more than six decades as a photographer and writer. |
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The only reason there is a domestic partnership status in California, Hawaii, and Vermont is because of the suits for legal marriage. The only reason there are domestic partner benefits at so many workplaces is because of the recognition that same-sex couples have been forbidden access to legal marriage. Civil Unions and other domestic partner registrations have created a second-class status because they do not trigger — as does legal marriage — hundreds of state laws, nor do they trigger more than a thousand federal laws. These laws comprise the rights and responsibilities which protect families in times of crisis. Domestic partnership Unions or registrations do not provide any recognition outside of the issuing state. Once crossing a state line, registered couples are considered to be legal strangers. For equal treatment as an adult citizen, the clearest words to use have always been “legal marriage.” Demanding anything short of legal marriage has never resulted in getting legal marriage. Unfortunately, There will be backlash. It is identical in nature and ferocity to the backlash that the black and woman’s movements have received. It is an expected by-product of the discrimination that prompted the cry for equality in the first place. For hundreds of years — before the beginning of the modern gay rights struggle for equality — those who were fearful, or hateful, had committed violence against gay men, lesbians, and transsexuals. They did not need a rational cause. Their own fears provided the provocation. The spiritual, legal, and physical violence committed against us is not because of our sexuality. It is because of their violence. Some think there never is a good time to fight for civil rights. Here are two quotes that keep me warm in the storm: “Equality always seems radical to those who oppose it.” “Equal means getting the same thing at the same time in the same place”
All contents © 2018, Demian
Original article written November 8, 2004, and periodically updated.
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